Debrecen International Airport is the

international airport An international airport is an airport with customs and border control facilities enabling passengers to travel between countries around the world. International airports are usually larger than domestic airports and they must feature longer r ...

Debrecen Debrecen ( , is Hungary's second-largest city, after Budapest, the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar County. A city with county rights, it was the largest Hungarian city in the 18th century and ...

in the Hajdú-Bihar County of

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Cr ...

. It is the second largest airport in Hungary, after

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population o ...

and ahead of Hévíz–Balaton. Debrecen is the second largest city in Hungary, after

and ahead of

Szeged Szeged ( , ; see also other alternative names) is the third largest city of Hungary, the largest city and regional centre of the Southern Great Plain and the county seat of Csongrád-Csanád county. The University of Szeged is one of the m ...

. DEB is located south southwestEAD Basic
/ref> of the city center and also easily accessible to adjacent regions of

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

and

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inva ...

History

The history of Debrecen Airport goes back to the early 20th Century. The first official regular flight carrying mail took off in 1930. Subsequently, the Airport served sport and military purposes. From 1930, it had remarkable domestic traffic serving flights from Debrecen to Budapest and to other major cities in Hungary. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

it was the base of a Hungarian bombing squad. Between 1946 and 1968, Debrecen Airport functioned also as an emergency airfield for Budapest Airport. Following World War II, the Soviet air force had control over the airport until 1990. The political transition brought the revival of the airport and international civilian traffic was launched together with sports aviation. In May 1991, Soviet troops vacated the airport and handed it over to the Hungarian government. In 1994, the Debrecen Municipal Government realized the need to develop the airport and included it in its development plan. The city purchased the airport and has been steadily developing it. By 2004, the city of Debrecen had invested 3.5 billion forints to purchase, operate, and continually develop Debrecen Airport. On 18 June 2012,

Wizz Air Wizz Air, legally incorporated as Wizz Air Hungary Ltd. ( hu, Wizz Air Hungary Légiközlekedési Zrt.) is a Hungarian ultra-low-cost carrier with its head office in Budapest, Hungary. The airline serves many cities across Europe, as well as ...

launched its scheduled service between Debrecen and

London-Luton London Luton Airport is an international airport located in Luton, Bedfordshire, England, situated east of the town centre, and north of Central London. The airport is owned by London Luton Airport Ltd (LLAL), a company wholly owned by ...

, initially with 3 weekly flights. In 2012–2013,

Tatarstan Airlines Tatarstan Airlines ( tt-Cyrl, Татарстан Һава Юллары, translit=Tatarstan Hava Yulları; russian: ОАО «Авиакомпания „Татарстан“», «Aviakompaniya „Tatarstan“») was the regional airline of the ...

operated a bi-weekly flight to Moscow-Domodedovo. After the disaster of

Tatarstan Airlines Flight 363 Tatarstan Airlines Flight 363 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight, operated by Tatarstan Airlines on behalf of Ak Bars Aero, from Moscow to Kazan, Russia. On 17 November 2013, at local time (UTC+4), the Boeing 737-500 crashed during an a ...

which forced Tatarstan Airlines into bankruptcy, the route was taken over by

UTair Aviation Utair (russian: ОАО «Авиакомпания «ЮТэйр») () is a Russian airline with its head office at Khanty-Mansiysk Airport while its hubs are at Surgut International Airport and Vnukovo International Airport. It operates scheduled ...

. In 2014, due to souring Russia–European Union relations, a number of punitive sanctions were implemented vice versa that forced UTair to cancel the flight. In 2015,

established a cadet pilot school at the airport under the company Pharma-Flight Kft which also researches and produces pharmaceutical products for flight staff. Wizz Air in 2015 announced they would base one

Airbus A320 The Airbus A320 family is a series of narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air France. The first member of the fam ...

at Debrecen.Wizz Air announces 22nd base
, wizzair.com, 21 May 2015. The construction of a new "innovation and incubation centre" at the airport which would host the new terminal on its ground floor began in June 2015. and scheduled to open in 2017.

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular year-round and seasonal services at the airport:

Statistics

Top destinations

Annual passenger numbers

Ground transportation

Bus

2016 Volvo Alfa Cívis 12 Segner tér NRV-776

Buses ''Airport1'' and ''Airport2'' are operated by the local public transport company, called '' Debreceni Közlekedési Vállalat'' (DKV). ''Airport1'' runs between the airport and the main train station of Debrecen, where connections are available to local, regional and international buses, trams and trains, while ''Airport2'' runs between the Airport and the northern end of the city. The schedule of the buses are matched with the departure and arrival times of the planes at the airport, serving all inbound and outbound flights and can be used with any of the regular DKV tickets or passes. A direct bus connection was established in March 2016 between

Nagyvárad Oradea (, , ; german: Großwardein ; hu, Nagyvárad ) is a city in Romania, located in Crișana, a sub-region of Transylvania. The county seat, seat of Bihor County, Oradea is one of the most important economic, social and cultural centers in the ...

(Oradea) and Debrecen International Airport. The schedule is matched with the arrival and departure times of the planes.

Road

The street leading to the airport terminal is accessible from Route 47 only. Passengers arriving at the airport can get to their destinations by taxi for a fix tariff within city limits.

Train

The airport has a recently reconstructed direct rail connection, but it is used for freight moving only. It will be made suitable for passenger traffic only if there will be a reasonable demand for the construction sometime in the future.Papp László: ha elkészül a főpályaudvar, összekötjük a repülőtérrel – videóval
dehir.hu, 13 November 2015

Notes

References

External links

Official website
* * {{authority control Airports in Hungary Debrecen Soviet Air Force bases Hungary–Soviet Union relations Buildings and structures in Debrecen Military installations of the Soviet Union in other countries